Some questions were raised regarding the status of meet reconciliation effort and whether PVS was attempting a complete reconciliation of meet entries at this point in time. It was noted that the new registrar was rapidly coming up to speed but had not yet started the process of attempting to reconcile meet entry files with the PVS registration data base.

Some board members questioned whether it was appropriate for PVS to attempt a formal reconciliation process before January 1, 2003, given the quality of the '02 registration records. At the same time, there was a consensus this should not preclude the registrar becoming familiar with the reconciliation process in the interim and if certain PVS club(s) were found to have significant gaps in their registrations, having PVS take more formal action in the interim.

It was also indicated given where we are in the transition process, it would not be practical for PVS to verify registrations on a pre-meet basis for all club sponsored meets.

Athlete's Report
Amy Stark reported that she would be surveying athletes at the November Open to get their views on the pros and cons of PVS sponsored versus club sponsored meet. It was suggested that she might want to get views from athletes participating at other venues and other types of meets in order to have a broader range of input. It was noted that she could ask athletes from other clubs to assist her in this effort.

Administrative Division Report
Thirl Crudup advised the Board that Sumie Emory is now actively on-board as our new Registrar. All relevant files, equipment and a computer have been transferred to her for her use. She is current with 2003 registrations (athlete, non-athlete and clubs.) Registration submissions are being reviewed when received for completeness by the General Chairman before being transferred to the Registrar for processing. Receipts are being transferred directly to the Treasurer. It was agreed that the General Chairman, Registrar and Treasurer should meet to assure procedures will exist that are satisfying everybody's needs.

Board members inquired regarding plans to announce Sumie Emory's appointment to the general membership. They noted that significant progress was being made in registration area, financial record keeping, pool rentals, etc and it would be desirable to communicate this to the general membership.

Some questions were raised by the Treasurer about the need to provide information to him about the precise basis for receipts so that (1) he could assure the amounts are properly credited to the appropriate registration sub-account, club, athlete, non-athlete, transfer, etc. (2) he would be able to reconcile receipts received and recorded against the number of registrants, and (3) the amounts to be paid to USA Swimming could be verified.

Thirl Crudup reported we already well along with registrations for the 2003 year. 15 clubs have registered, 203 non-athletes have registered of which the vast majority are officials (at least 143) and there are 2878 athletes registered. Some clubs are registering all their athletes right away -- others are initially concentrating on their new athletes.

Bill Stephens then gave a report on the status of filling the Administrative Assistant position and obtaining permanent office space for the LSC.

Before doing so, he noted that the time required to perform the duties of the registrar has proven so far to be less than expected. Also, the duties may change substantially within the next year when (if) USA Swimming starts accepting direct registration. It was acknowledged that some duties have yet to be attempted -- the most significant being reconciliation between athletes entered into meets and PVS's registration records.

He stated that as the Board becomes more familiar with the tasks remaining to be done, it is becoming less clear whether PVS needs a full time administrative assistant in addition to a registrar. There was discussion by the Board regarding this perspective with various viewpoints expressed. Many felt the next useful step would be to prepare a more precise statement of the functions to be performed by the Administrative Assistant. This would be similar to what was done for the Registrar's position, prior to filling that vacancy.

There was also discussion as what would be the most valuable prior work experience of a successful candidate for the Administrative Assistant position. Various board members offered their opinions.

Bill Stephens also discussed the challenges that have been encountered in finding office space for PVS. He stated many felt it would be desirable for PVS to locate its office at the same location as another organization. It was felt this would provide a better work environment for our staff. He stated he had pursued several options which initially looked promising, but which upon additional investigation did not work out.

He highlighted some items from the report warranting the attention of the Board.

He noted he was routinely sanctioning requests for observed and approved meets for which there was a historical precedent. He advised he had just received a new request for an observed meet not previously held ---- the 2003 Maryland Winterfest Invitational Meet to be held January 11-12 at UMD and to be hosted by SPY swimming -- a Y club in the MD LSC. It was indicated that it was unlikely to be drawing significant entries from PVS athletes. The Board indicated it had no objection to granting this sanction.

He highlighted for the Board the relative attendance at club versus PVS sponsored meets in October and expressed the view it was important for Strategic Planning to review what should be the role of PVS versus clubs in conducting non-championship meets during the SC season. The General Chairman indicated he agreed such a referral should be made when the new chairman is named.

John Hirschmann advised that he was making good progress in renting pools for PVS meets during the summer 2003 LC season. That included permitting the 14/U LC Age Group Champs to be conducted on a prelim/finals basis with only timed finals on Saturday afternoon.

However, no pool to date has been identified for the PVS Senior/Junior LC Meet scheduled for July 10-13. Hirschmann indicated that the preferred pool -- GMU had already been reserved by another LSC. He noted that other pools that PV would consider were either unavailable or no additional lanes would be available for warm-up/warm-down.

There was discussion whether the sanction (which has been granted for this meet the past two years) ought to be denied. The general feeling was that this would be inappropriate. Instead, it was suggested that we consider approaching this LSC about the possibility of a joint championship. Thirl Crudup indicated he would initiate this process by contacting his counterpart LSC General Chairman within the next few days. Garner as Senior Chair would then contact their Senior Chair to determine if there was interest in a joint championship and whether there it appeared a consensus could be reached on how to conduct such a meet.

Adaptive swimming -- John Hirschmann indicated he felt it was more appropriate for Competition to respond to Boots Hall's written recommendation regarding possible co-chairs for the PVS Adaptive Swimming Chairmanship. It was observed that one candidate's strength was in recruiting potential athletes to participate in this aspect of PVS's program. The other was more familiar with how accommodate such athletes into the PVS meet format and how to officiate such athletes.

Jim Garner indicated he was supportive of these recommendations and indicated he would contact the two individuals to see if they were interested in serving.

John Hirschmann recommended deferring discussion whether meet entry fees should be adjusted until after the Treasurer gave his report.

Treasurer's Report
John Ertter presented to the Board a revised balance sheet and income statement for the prior two fiscal years. He noted he had recategorized several items into different income or expense accounts in order to make the presentation more meaningful.

The statement included that PVS's as of August 31, 2002 operating account balances were $251,437. $4,777 was in the Davis account, $5030 was in an escrow account and $47,668 in our mutual account.

John Ertter reported that he is also starting to capitalize items, rather than expensing them. To date, he had done this for items purchased in the prior two years. There is still a need to include items acquired earlier and to also record depreciation on these items.

John Ertter also reported that there are still some open items from the '01-'02 fiscal year. This includes completing payments for pool rentals, receipt and depositing of meet entry fees, making payment to clubs for hosting PVS sponsored meets, etc. John indicated that he did not feel when these items have been recorded, it would have a material impact on PVS's financial condition.

John Ertter also provided a report on activity to date (through October 22) for the current fiscal year. He noted that receipts for large number of registrations for 2003 had already been deposited, but no payment had yet to be made to USA Swimming for their share of the registration fee. This has materially increased the cash balances currently being held by PVS.

John Ertter also provided an analysis of the profitability of all PVS sponsored meets during the 2001-02 season. Accounting is not yet quite complete as one pool rental remained to be paid, some meet entry fees remained to be collected and some meet hosting fees remain to be paid. It showed the PVS would make an overall modest profit on these meets, with a few meets (distance, etc.) involving a net cost to PVS.

Ertter noted that the '03 budget presented to House in May '02 was of necessity submitted based on less than complete information. He indicated that in the next month -- as he completes his review of the information now available to him -- he would assessing whether to bring a revised budget for 2003 to the Board at its November meeting.

Operations Division
John Hirschmann noted that as a result of reviewing the pool contracts for which he assumed responsibility and some changes in venue authorized by the Board, it appears that pool rentals for the '02-'03 season would be about $25K greater than budgeted.

In light of that, but also mindful of the PVS's current financial condition as just reported by the Treasurer, he queried the Board as to whether the entry fees for PVS sponsored meets should be adjusted.

It was noted the spring championship meets have been moved better pools, but that the meet entry fees have not been adjusted. It was moved and seconded that the meet entry fees for PVS championship meets be set at $4.75 for individual events and $9.50 for relays. This is the same as has been charged for the summer LC championship meets. Several spoke in favor of the idea that entry fees for various PVS championship meets be the same. It was proposed that perhaps the entry fees be adjusted in light of actual costs, but most felt this was either impractical or inappropriate. The motion to set entry fee for all PVS championship meets at $4.75 for individual events and $9.50 for relay events passed.

It was moved and seconded that meet entry fees for PVS distance meets be raised from $3.75 to $5.00. Others commented that this might discourage distance swimming and/or be premature in light of larger planned review of how PVS distance meets are conducted. It was also noted that because there are limited entries in distance meets, the overall impact of this change entry fees on PVS's finances would not be very significant. The motion was withdrawn.

There was no discussion at this time of changing the PVS Open entry fees since two of the three meets for this year have either occurred or their entries are due within the week.

There was no need to discuss changing entry fees for the summer meets (PVS Senior I and II, Age Group I and II) at this time, since these meet announcements will not be issued for several months and we will have better understanding of PVS's financial condition at that time..

Senior Chairman
No report was submitted.

Travel assistance requests. Linda Klopenstein indicated that three travel assistance requests had already been approved, one of which was approved as an appeal at the September meeting. . She reported requests for 18 additional athletes had subsequently been properly submitted. She noted that 15 satisfied the PVS requirements and that she was recommending that their clubs be reimbursed.

There were three athletes for whom she was recommending reimbursement be denied since the athletes had not met PVS requirements. One had not satisfied the requirement to compete in 4 events at PVS sponsored meets during the '02 LC season. The other two had not competed in any of their national events during PVS meets during the '02 LC season. One did not enter the appropriate event(s) and other scratched finals. The Board concurred that since they had not satisfied the requirements to receive PVS travel assistance and that no "appeal" had been filed explaining extenuating circumstances. Accordingly, it was decided that travel assistance for these three athletes should not be paid to their clubs.

Linda Klopenstein recommended that the PVS Board start to address what would be proper "travel" assistance for the summer 2003 Nationals to be held at UMD. Given that it will be held within PVS boundaries, no airplane travel would be necessary for PVS athletes to attend. It was suggested that $100/athlete or perhaps a lower amount per event be paid instead. However, others noted this was really intended to help with the cost of attending such a meet which for most would still include lodging when they were competing. Another alternative proposed was to pay up to 50% of the amount normally paid, with perhaps also adjusting it to be paid on an individual event entered basis.

Age Group Chairman
Greg York announced that the PVS SC 14/U Age Group time standards have been posted. The times reflect the desire of the Competition Committee to try where practical to have 8 heats of 50's, and 6 heats of 100's and 200's. He noted that in the future so long as the number of desired heats was known, time standards could be set shortly after the prior year's championship meet was completed.

New Business
Bill Marlin inquired about receiving an award under the Coaches Continuing Education Program. The Board observed that it was not aware of any other applications that had been received this year. John Hirschmann was asked to review the application on behalf of the Board and advise whether the application satisfied the requirements to be paid.

Next Meeting
The Board agreed its next meeting would be Wednesday, November 20 at 7pm. Greg York said he would check whether River Falls is available on that date.